The Song of the Angels

Well, Merry Christmas everybody. It is so great to have you here. My name is René, one of the pastors here at Twin Lakes Church. And you know this service, the 3 p.m. service on Christmas Eve, is typically the service where we are privileged to have the most kids in the service, which I love. Raise your hand if you're a kid. Raise your hand if you are old. And if you are wondering, "Am I old?" You're old, so just go ahead.

Hey listen, I just want to say if you are here right now, and maybe it's been kind of a stressful day, and there's a lot of kids, and maybe you'll even hear a baby cry. On Christmas Eve when the baby Jesus is being celebrated, don't let the cry of a baby irritate you, okay? Just kind of go, "Ah, that's the sound of Christmas." All right? How many of you are ready to do that? Raise your right hand. All right, that's good.

Hey listen, I want to ask you another question, and I want to ask you if you can identify this prop that is made to resemble something from one of my favorite all-time Christmas specials. Are you ready for this? Raise your hand if you recognize what special this is from. Go ahead and raise your hand if you recognize this. Now shout it out. What is this from? This is from Charlie Brown Christmas. Now this is my personal all-time favorite, but how many of you show hands? How many of you are more like Frosty the Snowman people? Can I say show hands? More like How the Grinch Stole Christmas? Anybody a fan of that? What about Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer? Any Rudolph fans here today? Okay, you're all wrong, and let me show you why.

There is a scene in Charlie Brown Christmas. It is my favorite scene in my favorite special, and I know some of you are thinking, "Well, you're a pastor. Your favorite scene is when they read scripture." Well, that's not quite it. It's when Charlie Brown, well, he picks out this little Christmas tree, right? First of all, because he kind of feels personally like this tree looks. He feels kind of small and rejected and lonely in a world of tall trees, but then after this big huge build-up, do you remember after Charlie Brown, all the to-do lists that he's given even by his baby sister Sally and all of the commercialism and the hype and the arguments and the drama and feeling left out?

Finally, Charlie Brown does hear the Christmas story, but here's my favorite part. He is moved to walk away from the chaos, and he looks up and he closes his eyes and he remembers the story, and he re-experiences the wonder, and it changes him. And that moment right there is my hope for you tonight in these services. That after all your to-do lists and the commercialism and maybe even the arguments and the drama and feeling left out, these moments are a little walk away from all of that for you and to help you rediscover the wonder again.

In our December series Advent playlist, we've been looking at the original songs of Christmas in the Gospel of Luke and today the most well-known of all, the Song of the Angels. And this is what Linus reads, and I just want to walk through a little bit of these Bible verses and uncover what I think are some pretty cool details that you might not have noticed before.

Mary and Joseph, here's the setup. They travel from Nazareth down to Bethlehem, which is about 90 miles, and they have to do this when Mary is about nine months pregnant. And do you remember the story? The only reason they're traveling is because of government bureaucracy. Somebody in Rome decided they need to tax everybody and everybody's got to go register to be taxed. What a drag. But that's a detail I love because that journey got them where the ancient prophecy said the Messiah would be born.

But you know what? I doubt they were thinking on that journey, "This government red tape sure is beautiful." I'm sure they were pretty annoyed, but that story shows me for one thing, God uses things that you don't want to do to get you where he wants you to go. How many of you would agree with that? Can I see a show of hands? How many of you have seen that in your own lives? How many of you that's going to be your first thought the next time you're in a traffic jam or get a jury summons? No, probably not. But I guarantee in the new year God's gonna do that.

Okay. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born. She gave birth to her firstborn, a son, and she wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger. And you know manger means feeding trough, right? Like a feeding trough for animals. It was gross. Why there? Because there was no guest room available for them. And here's where it gets real good. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over the flocks.

Now we imagine shepherds and we see cute kids in a Christmas play, right? But in those days shepherds were considered pretty sketchy. They were unclean ceremonially. That meant they couldn't even go up to the temple, like to church, to worship God because they were constantly stepping in gross stuff. They were unclean. They were undesirable people, the lowest class in society back then. Unskilled laborers, unreliable witnesses. Their testimony wasn't even allowed in court because everybody thought they were liars. They were kind of like that scrawny little Christmas tree in a big forest of redwoods, looked down on.

So look at this list. These were probably not guys who were like ultra happy with their lot in life, right? Yet God chooses them for this moment. An angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were terrified. These outdoorsmen were terrified. That tells me angels do not look like this because this would not have terrified anybody, right? That tells me they probably look a little bit more like this.

Somebody posted this on Instagram, watched my friends' dogs today while they were gone, tried to get a cute picture for them and ended up with an accidental gem/nightmare, "Merry Christmas" and "Here is the dog." There it is. Now here's the thing. That dog is trying to smile and this story tells me even when angels try to smile they still just completely scare human beings, right? And I think the shepherds probably thought, "Yeah, you know, everybody else kicks us around. Now God's gonna kick us around too." But instead they get this.

God finds the least likely people to hear this message. The angels said to them, "Don't be afraid. I bring you good news. That'll cause great joy for all the people today in the town of David. A Savior has been born to you. Messiah, the Lord." Now you see that word "Savior" a lot in the Christmas story. It means God came not to frighten us, fight us, lecture us, condemn us, but to save us. And that's good news. He came to save us from our sins, to give us forgiveness and a new life.

We couldn't do that on our own so God came to you, to forgive you, and empower you to change because He loves you. And the shepherds are like, "No, nobody gives us the time of day." And you're choosing us for that message. And the angels say, "Here is how you will identify this special baby whose cries I can hear even now. This will be a sign to you. You'll find a baby wrapped in cloths." Well that's not so unusual. He's in diapers. Yeah, well we're not finished.

And lying in a something you shepherds know all about. When God came to your lives He came all the way down into your lives. Because this, you're gonna go back to your stable and you're gonna find the Messiah in your feeding trough lying in a manger. And what I love about the story is when the angel says, "Manger, feeding trough, that was the cue." Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel praising God and saying, "Glory to God of the highest heaven over what? They're amazed that the Creator of the universe is coming into the world as a baby born into manure and straw and an animal's feeding bowl." Like God is amazing. He loves these people so much.

"And on earth peace to those on whom his favor his grace rests." Well when the angels had left them and gone into heaven the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has told us about." Okay, have you noticed in that a little bit of, "Yeah, the Lord told us about." And so they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the baby who was lying in a manger.

When they had seen them they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child. See the angels brought them good news now they can't stop bringing good news to other people they were transformed. And all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. You see that word amazed a lot in the Christmas story don't you? Mary's amazed at what the angel says to them then the angels are amazed at what's happening then the shepherds are amazed and the people the shepherds tell are all amazed.

And here's what this is all about. Being captured by this amazing story. Because some days let's be honest you just feel like this little tree. In a world of redwoods you kind of feel like Charlie Brown and his tree. Christmas is a time of joy for a lot of people but maybe for you this year it's reminded you of how lonely you feel or disappointed with how your life is turning out or maybe you're in a little bit of trouble. Lost a job or financial trouble or maybe even in trouble with the law and you don't feel very full today.

But do you see the Christmas story tells me that God came first to you. To people in exactly your life situation to say guess what his favor rests on you. There's good news for you. And when you soak that in it changes you. Do you remember what happens toward the end of the special Linus sees the tree through the lens of grace and he loves it and then all the characters do and they're generous toward it and the tree changes and it thrives and Charlie Brown himself is absolutely amazed.

And that's what happens to you when you allow God to lavish his grace on you. It just makes you beam. You're transformed. Somebody said loved people love people. The other day I was struck by how giving is a part of this church's DNA. You heard Adrian say over a million meals last month and over 1,500 gifts this month and if you go to church here you know that is not in the least the result of any arm-twisting or clever campaign. Like we barely mentioned these things and the church just overflows with this grace toward other people.

It overflows out of the love that you know you have in Christ so you can't keep it in. You know in the show Linus quotes the old King James version the angel said unto them fear not for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy. Well modern translations don't use the word behold because we just don't say it anymore do we? You know behold a good deal at Costco we just don't say that anymore. But the word is actually in the original Greek fear not instead behold.

Literally the angel is saying do not be fearing be perceiving because when you allow it to soak in when you let it capture your imagination and your heart that when you felt like this God came to you to lavish his goodness on you. Well then it changes everything when you see that light.

You know our daughter Elizabeth and I'll close with this she took our little almost two-year-old grandson Emmett out for a walk with her husband Jordan the other night to see the Christmas lights in their neighborhood. First time in his life he'd ever seen Christmas lights. You want to hear his review? Watch this video. So this goes on for about a half an hour but he was pretty into the Christmas lights.

Well here's my hope for you that you let the good news of God's gift wow you this Christmas because that's transforming. As Linus said and that's what Christmas is all about.

Let's pray together would you bow your heads with me Lord. Wow wow and also thank you thank you for sending exactly what we needed a Savior who is Christ the Lord. And God I pray that it would capture our imaginations tonight and Lord if it's never been personal before or maybe it's been a while I pray that it would become personal this night this moment that we might pray Jesus let me be amazed at your gift this Christmas. I want to receive you or recommit to you as my Lord and Savior. Let your light come into my life and may I reflect it all around me in your son's name we say wow and we pray these things Amen.